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Recently bought a Lenovo X1 Carbon (1st Gen), which has Windows 8 Pro OEM installed on it.

I want to wipe the SSD and put Linux on it, but I'd like to know I can always restore the original Windows 8 operating system just in case I need that.

Given that my Windows 8 Pro is an OEM version, from Lenovo, I understand that my Windows 8 product key will NOT work on a downloaded retail ISO of Windows 8 Pro - such as is offered by the download utilities available on the Microsoft website.

I've read around a fair bit, and it seems that to get reinstallation media, you need to ask Lenovo for the OEM version of Windows 8 - which my OEM key WOULD work on.

However, my last laptop was also a Lenovo - a Lenovo Edge model. It came with Windows 7 preinstalled, but the box included DVD media of Windows 8 Pro OEM in order to give customers the option of upgrading to Windows 8 if they wanted.

I dug the old DVDs up. Two discs - both have "Operating System Recovery Disc - Windows 8 Pro (OEM Activation 3.0 Required)" printed on them. Both also have "For use with a licensed Lenovo PC."

This seems promising to me. What I want to know is, is this recovery disc a generic one for all Lenovo PCs which come with OEM Windows 8 installed, or is there a custom Windows 8 Pro OEM Recovery Disc for each different model?

Will these DVDs - which came with my Thinkpad Edge, also work on my X1?

If, after months using Linux, I decided to install Windows 8 on my X1 using these DVDs, would it work, and would the OEM product key in my present installation of Windows 8 Pro successfully activate that installation of Windows 8 Pro?

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  • Why are you going to use an OEM disk when Microsoft offers the installation disk here
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 5, 2016 at 17:46
  • Factory recovery disks are usually locked to a certain small set of hardware profiles, I doubt they will work on that system.
    – Moab
    Commented Mar 5, 2016 at 17:47
  • @Ramhound I didn't know about that, but it also looks like it's not really "offered" but a hack.
    – breakingbits
    Commented Mar 5, 2016 at 17:57
  • Whats the difference. Its directly from Microsoft
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 5, 2016 at 22:40
  • @Moab See answer. It actually worked.
    – breakingbits
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 1:55

1 Answer 1

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Answer: yes.

I decided to try it out, based on this answer, which seemed to suggest it would work ok.

As it turns out, it worked. I didn't even have to enter the product key - Windows 8 seems to have read it from my BIOS. So I was able to reinstall Windows 8 Pro on an X1 using the OEM discs from an Edge E545. According to the linked answer, Lenovo OEM discs are fairly lenient on this point. YMMV.

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  • Then Lenovo changed their recovery discs, this did not work for Windows 7 recovery media, I tried it on a X201 using media from a different model.
    – Moab
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 13:19
  • Important to point out that I can only vouch for these specific models - an E545 and an X1 Carbon circa 2012. Also, the E545 had been a Windows 7 machine - but the supplier included the Windows 8 OEM discs as an optional upgrade, so this may mean they were atypical installation media. Footnote: it even allowed me to update to Windows 10 Pro from Windows 8. I'm now installing Linux. :)
    – breakingbits
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 14:22

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